Dhaka, July 18 (bdnews24.com)—The government on Sunday tabled a bill in the parliament for upgrading the College of Textile Technology in Tajgaon in Dhaka to a full-fledged university.
Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid presented the "Bangladesh Textile University Bill-2010" to produce more skilled human resources for the country's booming textile and clothing sector, which now accounts for 77 percent of the total export earnings.
According to the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, the country gets one new textile unit after every 10 days and the operators are forced to hire technicians and experts from abroad—mainly from India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
As per the bill, the proposed university will offer graduate, post-graduate, diploma and certificate courses for the students, which will substantially increase the number of textile technicians every year.
The present College of Textile Technology will turn into a university after passage of the bill and subsequent publication of the gazette.
BTMA sources say the textile sector employs five million workers, 80 percent of them are women.
The association also claimed that 10 percent of the country's $90 billion economy comes from the textile and clothing sector.
The bill was sent to the parliamentary standing committee on education ministry for further scrutiny before referring the draft law back to parliament before its passage.
The committee was granted two weeks to submit its recommendations on the bill.
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